Sentence Completion Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: simple

The semicolon signals that the second clause explains the first, and it only took one day to finish is evidence about difficulty, not about interest. A job finished in a day is an easy one.

Impossible contradicts the fact that it was finished at all. Boring and exciting describe how the work felt, which the evidence given cannot support either way.

Answer: C

Correct answer: drawback of - daunt

The second blank is fixed by the ending: the scheme was intended to encourage applicants, so whatever it does to them instead must be the opposite of encouraging. Daunt is the only such word offered - stimulate, attract and induce all point the same way as encouragement.

Once the second blank is negative, the first must be too, and drawback of follows naturally. Highlight and feature would be at odds with an unwanted effect.

Answer: B

This is a rather long and involved sentence and the correct answer can be got by inserting each of the answer choices in the blank, and testing which of the resulting sentences makes Logical sense. If scientists have a considerable interest in the possibility that increasing levels of atmospheric carbon-di-oxide can cause long-term warming affects, it is illogical to say that such interest will be sustained only until the current warming trend exceeds the range of normal climatic fluctuations. In fact, scientific interest in the phenomenon should be logically expected to increase if the current warming trend exceeds the range of normal climatic fluctuations. So, (A) is wrong. Since long-term warming trends caused by increasing levels of carbon-dioxide are detrimental to life on earth, scientists cannot be having an enthusiasm for such a possibility. So, (C) is wrong. While scientists would certainly worry about the trend, such worry cannot be only upto the period until the curre

Answer: A

Correct answer: trite - inspired

The key word is uneven. Poetry described as ranging from one extreme to another must be given two words that are opposites, and one of them must be unfavourable.

Trite (stale, over-familiar) and inspired supply exactly that range. The other three pairs are synonym pairs - succinct/laconic both mean brief, sublime/elevated both praise, vacuous/inane both condemn - and a range needs two ends, not one.

Answer: A

Correct answer: situation - incongruous

Positioned haphazardly is the clue for both blanks. If placement was haphazard, then what the architects ignored was placement itself - the cathedral’s situation - and the surroundings it ended up in would not suit it.

Incongruous supplies that mismatch, while salubrious, convenient and apt all describe surroundings that suit, which is the opposite of haphazard. Ambience and durability are not what haphazard positioning affects.

Answer: A

How can you describe the fact that a person, who grew up in a region rich in American Indian culture, did not develop her interest in Native American art until adulthood, but later wrote a very sensitive and authoritative book on it? Not as satisfactory, or doubtful, or concerned. The only appropriate word among the given choices is ironic.

Answer: D

The use of the conjunction although implies that there is contradiction in sense within the sentence. The second part says that fear and aggression are distinct (meaning different) both physiologically and psychologically. In order to bring out the implied contrast the missing word must describe a state in which these two are quite similar or lack distinctiveness. The only possible words among the choices are simultaneous and transitional. Between the two, the word simultaneous must be ruled out because, in that case, the phrase must read 'simultaneous states of fear and aggression, and 'not simultaneous states between fear and aggression'. The word transitional refers to a stage of movement from one state to another when the qualities of both states are present together and the difference between them is blurred. It is this word which fits in logically in the given sentence, and is the answer.The use of the conjunction although implies that there is contradiction in sense within the sentence. The second part says that fear and aggression are distinct (meaning different) both physiologically and psychologically. In order to bring out the implied contrast the missing word must describe a state in which these two are quite similar or lack distinctiveness. The only possible words among the choices are simultaneous and transitional. Between the two, the word simultaneous must be ruled out because, in that case, the phrase must read 'simultaneous states of fear and aggression, and 'not simultaneous states between fear and aggression'. The word transitional refers to a stage of movement from one state to another when the qualities of both states are present together and the difference between them is blurred. It is this word which fits in logically in the given sentence, and is the answer.

Answer: A

Correct answer: require

While others sets up a parallel, so the verb in the second clause should match need in the first, with only the amount of sunlight changing. Require is that match.

Prefer and choose soften a necessity into a liking, which breaks the parallel and also credits plants with a choice; obtain describes what a plant gets rather than what it needs, so the contrast between full and partial sunlight is lost.

Answer: B

Correct answer: a variety of

The colon introduces a list, so the blank must summarise what that list shows. Wood, steel, concrete, brick, stone and tile are six different kinds of material, and what they have in common is precisely their difference.

Very few is contradicted by the length of the list. Cheap and weak would each have to be true of steel and stone as well as of wood, and nothing in the sentence supports that.

Answer: A

The use of the conjunction but indicates the existence of a contrast within the sentence.) The latter part of the sentence says that dreams, when they are combined with other data, can tell us much about the dreamer. In order to bring out the intended contrast, the earlier part must mean that dreams by themselves cannot tell us anything about the dreamer. Among the choices, it is the word uninformative that as this meaning and is the answer.